Raised Bed Update

I finished planting my raised beds over the weekend. Here they are just before refilling the ollas. I put pine straw on top to keep my seeds safe and happy and for various other reasons.

I bought and planted two different kinds of broccoli transplants, a mustard green transplant, a kale transplant, a cauliflower transplant, lemon thyme, oregano, and garlic chives for the 

4 x 8 bed. I planted seeds for two kinds of broccoli, mixed kholrabi, chinese broccoli, 3 kinds of kale, sweet allysum,  2 kinds of mustard greens, red and green cabbage, chinese cabbage, marigolds, asters, dill, cilantro and brussel sprouts. I might have planted a few more seeds that I've already forgotten. Yep, I forgot to label almost everything except a transplant or two. I have lots of variety and should be able to id stuff once it is grown up. Right now the ollas seem to be needing refilling every other day to everyday, since it stopped raining. I was a little worried today about water because the transplants were looking a little wilty, but they perked up once the sun went down. I have bunches of sprouts in this bed. I think about 40 to 50 % of the seeds have sprouted. Mostly the little ones, not the  bigger seeds, but in truth I have no idea since I didn't label anything.

In the 4x4 bed I have seeds planted for 3 different kinds of sugar snap peas, snow peas, 3 kinds of winter salad greens, 3 kinds of spinach, early beets that are suppose to produce 

lots of greens, a fennel or two, marigolds, sweet allysum, parsley, chard, nastaturium and probably other stuff that is currently escaping my memory. I also have a rosemary transplant, an english thyme transplant, and swiss chard transplant. The salad greens are sprouting like crazy mad.  I have other sprouts as well. I would say 40 to 50% maybe more of my seeds have sprouted because I couldn't always see them under the pine straw. I accidently pulled out a couple of my sprouts trying to look under the pine straw so I stopped messing with it.

If even half of what I planted grows up, it should be pretty cool. I have lots of variety, so I should get a good indication of which fall veggie varieties are happiest with my kind of gardening. I have lots of leftover seed in mason jars in the fridge. If I keep them cool and dry, I can apparently use them for 3 to 5 years. I'm finding that I am talking and lightly touching my veggie transplants and super excited to check them everyday. When I originally planned for the veggie garden I planned for my interest to wain a little which is why I thought making ollas was so important. No worries there, so far.